Season Five
by after.a.hard.day
Summary: YGO! Writing Comp Entries Season Five. YMarikxYBakura. AnzuYYuugi. JouHonda
1. Operate

**title: **Operate  
**pairing/characters:** Yami Malik x Yami Bakura  
**summary:** "To be evil or good was never a decision, because they were never told the difference and instead picked life over death…"  
**rating:** M  
**notes:** Written for Computerfreak101's Yu-Gi-Oh! Crack Pairing Contest. First Round. Inspiration drawn from _Interview With A Vampire._  
**standard disclaimer applies.**

--

'_No squealing, remember that its all in your head_.' Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz.

--

He is perfect for me  
To practice surgery  
One look coagulates  
Its time to operate

Operate - Peaches.

--

He slammed his hands down on the table. Teeth sneering.

"Alright sir, I am going to have to ask you calm down."

The cold laughter echoed. "Get me a chess board."

"_Malik_ _Ishtar_ -"

"My name is not _Malik_."

"That is what you are - "

"Its _Ma__r__ik_. Get me a damn chessboard and I can tell you what you want."

The interviewer sighed. "_Alright_." He stood up, went out of the room and then returned.

"They are getting one as we speak."

"Good. Tell me officer, have you ever gone insane?"

The man blinked. Marik rocked back on his chair, then slammed back down again. Grinning so his white teeth gleamed behind the gold hair that fell about face.

"In my line of work… there have been times where I… have not been in my right mind."

The chair slammed back down, it was developing a pattern, and Malik stood up leaning forward. The interviewer gulped as Malik swiped his tongue across his lips.

"That's not insanity, insanity is much more… temperamental."

--

_Black takes White._

--

Marik sat across the chessboard, staring at his opponent.

"_Marik_."

"_Bakura_."

"Fancy meeting you here?" Marik sneered.

"It's a… strange occurrence, but then again, maybe not." Bakura replied back, cold smile forming. "But after all, this is the shadow realm is it not Marik? Where else is fitting?"

Marik laughed, rasping and burning.

"I propose a game, _Bakura_."

Removing a arm from where it was crossed over his chest he gestured widely. "What game?"

"_Chess_."

"Chess? How… plain. We have nothing to lose."

"Just ourselves, if this place doesn't get us first."

"This place or ourselves, _Marik_,"

--

_White takes Black._

--

"What's the shadow realm?" The interviewer inquired.

"Some where you should hope you never end up." That same flat smirk was on Marik's face. Marik leant forward and stared down at the chess board. "As _human__'__s_ we have so many choices. Some are made for us by our body. To breath, to have our heart pump, our stomach digest." Marik moved a pawn forward.

The interview inclined his head trying to understand what Marik was getting at. "Free will is a powerful thing."

Marik laughed again. "From that, most of us chose what we wish to become. Some chose to be good, to help, to be compassionate, others chose to be evil, to sell those drugs, to hit their wife, to rape that girl, to steal and kill. You are a police officer, you must know this."

"I do." The interviewer moved his rook to spaces to the left.

"But some of us do not chose, some of us are made. Some of us have no thought of our own, at least not that we can control. For some of us the choices of others take away our free will. To be evil or good was never a decision, because they were never told the difference and instead picked life over death…"

"…That is the difference between sanity and insanity, _officer_."

"I am afraid you aren't making sense…"

"Soon, officer, I will."

--

_Black takes White. _

--

Bakura ran his tongue over her teeth, fingers resting over his queen.

"Are you willing to lose yet Marik?"

"Only if you are." Marik blinked slowly.

"Joint loss, aren't they called stalemates?"

"A weak term, just a cover up of saying neither of us are any good."

Bakura laughed, the shadows twisted with him. Sharp reminders as to who exactly this spirit was.

"Did you not think my light and myself didn't know what you were up to when you asked for the millennium items?" Marik pondered his move.

"I figured there was a possibility."

Marik curled his fingers around a bishop and smashed Bakura's knight off the board.

"I am a _tomb keeper_, of course I knew what you were up to."

"You aren't a tomb keeper. Your light was, you are his deluded emotions seeking form. For this reason in our battle of spirits, I am superior."

Marik hissed. "I am not a recycled piece of soul. I am my own being as much as you are."

--

_White takes Black. _

--

"Hold up, what do you mean by recycled piece of soul?"

"The nature of Bakura is that he is implanted within a piece of the most sacred of the objects and every time he is 'destroyed' he re-incarnates. Recycled over and over."

"I see."

"You don't believe me, do you?" Marik glared.

"Why should I? You are here on convictions of _murder_ Ma_r_ik. You aren't in your right mind obviously."

Marik laughed so loudly then, that it ran under the thin crack of the door and into the corridor.

"Not my right mind? No, you are right, but this is my _best _mind, the other one is a wreck since he recreated me."

"Recreated you?"

"Oh yes, this is not the first time."

"First time to kill?"

"First time to show _my real power_."

"Your real power?"

--

_Black takes White._

--

"Marik, my dear _boy_, neither of us are, because the shadows are chaos and the chaos is never real or true."

"Shut _up_!" Marik clutched the side the piece he had just taken.

Bakura scoffed. "You are acting like a child. But what can I expect from one made from childish ambition?"

"You are a _marvellous _pretender Bakura."

Bakura lowered his head. Marik continued.

"What about you? Family destroyed, so out of your pain _as a child_ you set about festering and swearing revenge. We are both children in this game."

Bakura's head was turned away, arms crossed, but Marik could see here his fingers hand bunched together in agitation in the cloth.

--

_White takes Black. _

--

"He was a child swearing revenge?" The interviewer reiterated.

"Because on the first time around of existence, he lived in Egypt. His whole village was massacred at the Pharaoh's orders. He sought revenge."

"A understandable reason for revenge."

Marik picked up the piece he had just removed. A pawn. "Ever lay face first in blood?"

The interviewers hand jerked, knocking one of his pieces.

"No, I haven't."

"Then you wouldn't know. Its not just revenge, it's a need to clean one self of all that has been done against you."

"Bakura was, _is_, if nothing else, haunted."

Marik stood up.

"Haunted."

He walked around the table to chair where the interviewer was sitting, he leant over his shoulder.

"There is no other way to say it, Bakura is haunted, scared, and above alone, afraid. And does not want to be any other way."

He breathed into the mans neck.

"Most humans do eventually reach a point where they go past maturity and into childhood again. When they have reached this point, nothing really matters anymore and you can laugh at philosophers, because they know nothing in the end. No one knows anything."

--

_Black takes White. _

--

"Marik, you think you know _so_ much."

Marik laughed. Bakura grit his teeth.

"Bakura, you think _you_ know so much."

They glared at each other across the table.

"We are not so different, you and I, we will never be." Bakura spat.

Marik smirked. "Glad you finally realise."

Bakura slammed his hand across the pieces.

"_Child_." Marik taunted.

Bakura knocked the table across next, standing up in black rage, the shadows twisting harder.

And it was that moment that they knew they were separate in all ways, but their differences made them the same.

Marik reached his hand up and dragged Bakura to him, smashing their lips.

It was as violent and as brittle as they were, every bit of tension in those slow steady moves on the board. Bakura's fingers were in Marik's hair, tugging and pulling undoubtedly painful, one of Marik's hands remained bunched in Bakura's shirt, the other braced on his neck, holding him to him as Bakura steadily pushed and Marik pulled. As one but not.

About them the shadows turned.

--

_White takes Black. _

--

"What does this have to do with answer to _murder _question, _Marik_."

"Nothing," Marik muttered. "Nothing I have said does. I was just…" he gnashed his teeth in the man's ears, eyes glinting at the shiver that ran down the man's spine. "… _fucking_ with you."

The interviewer hit the button on the recording machine, effectively stopping it.

"You see these pieces," Marik gestured to the board. "They are all different, just like Bakura and I. All of them. Things are decided for them, but in the end they are the same, they move, forward and back, taken and replaced. Each a step and careful move of some higher power."

"What are you trying to get at, Marik? You've told me a story, nothing that will help prove your innocence. In fact you said you'd answer some things for me, you haven't done any of that. You've told me a bunch of things that aren't related in any way."

"This is true. But you aren't listening."

"What do you mean?"

"I told you, _Bakura and I are exactly alike, _despite differences."

"What do you mean?"

"I killed her, because I chose to, not because I wanted to, but because I was defined from a young age. I'm your killer, _sir_. Too bad you turned the recorder off." Marik licked the side of the mans throat.

"So what does this have to do with _anything_?"

"Do you know what I am?"

"No."

"I am the darkness born from a boy who was destroyed by his own father, his hate and malice gather within him combined with a dark magic from a time much older, a dangerous collaboration, don't you think? You could call me a… forceful multiple personality disorder."

"Bent on anarchy? Please, I've seen _Fight Club_."

Marik laughed. "Yes and No. I care little for world destruction, just domination. Destruction is made for men like Bakura. All I sought to tell you is of choice. Bakura could of done all manner of things to stop me. He did not."

"W-what did you do?"

"I found out his secret to continual rebirth."

--

_Black takes White._

--

"You bastard! How! How did you do this?!" Bakura snarled at Marik's fast disappearing appearance.

"I embedded part of myself within the puzzle. Simple enough. After all, you are the one that thought of it, _Ba-ku-ra_." The cold laughter ran out, but the darkness it had no difference.

"You will not survive it this time, I will make sure you will not _Ma-rik_."

"You best not, otherwise this would be far to boring. Inform me when you get out of this realm." Bakura reached forward to grab his shirt, but Marik was gone.

--

_White takes Black. _

--

"I thought you were friends! Lovers!"

"No, you are putting your restrictions on us, on our _relationship_. We are, by your definition, _psychos_, those sorts of restraints mean nothing to us. Eat or be eaten? Isn't that the phrase?"

"So he's still there?"

"Oh no, he's free. It didn't take him long to work out what I had done."

"What did you do?"

"As if I could tell you, _Bakura_."

"You have go to be joking, I'm - " the roomed turned dark. Appearances changed, and the roomed distorted.

"_You caught me Marik."_

"So you found out how to get out, huh?"

"As you said, it didn't take me long."

Marik began to walk back to his seat, he leant on the table. "Shall we finish our game, _Bakura_?"

--

_Its still a stalemate. _

--

Fin.

--

Afterahardday

--


	2. Give Me My Dignity

**title: **Give Me My Dignity  
**pairing:** AnzuxYYuugi (slight ShizukaAnzu)  
**summary:** "Its too have a sensation so complete, that its better and so destroying. It destroys you... beautifully."  
**rating:** M  
**notes:** Written for Computerfreak101's Yu-Gi-Oh! Crack Pairing Competition. Written listening too "Give Me Sympathy/The Hooks" by Metric.  
**standard disclaimer applies.**

--

Twist, twist, spin, fall, fell, going down...

_down_

_down_

_down_

_it was all sorta,_

...falling apart.

--

She looked up with those eyes, (_wideeyes - seeingeyes - forgettingeyes_) just take a glimpse, a moment, to remember, to hope and to breath.

She was a girl in love and love was warm and sweet (_ohsopainful_), oh so sweet.

--

Sweet, kinda like blood on her lips.

--

She clung to his shoulders, he was stiff against her when she pulled him to her. She took his hand, putting it to her thigh, the tips of his (_softpliablequickoutofreach_) fingers just under her skirt.

"I-is this what you want?" She pushed his hand in harder. "C-cause I read, I read that - "

She felt his head drop against her shoulder, his spikey (_sosososoft_) hair brush her face, a breath down her neck and chest, the fingers pressed harder of their own accord. She made some noise, quiet noise, that showed that she (_didn'tdidn'tdidn't_) wanted this.

"I read that women in Ancient Egypt, they," the fingers, involuntarily maybe, moved just a inch higher, "they didn't put a-any importance on th-this kind of thing."

--

She kept staring, up he had a halo around his head, gold black and dark dark red.

"_Beware of the ones that have dreams Anzu,"_

"_Why mama?"_

"_They'll love their dreams, not you."_

She could only stare and know she wasn't good enough.

It didn't matter if that halo fell around his feet, she'd wait, always wait and watch (_andhopeandprey_) and help (_andpickupthathalocausethenhewouldnotice_).

He could be her redemption.

--

The fingers dug hard and his breath was fast on her neck, she tried desperately for any reaction from him. (_pleasepleaseplease_)

"Anzu,"

it was her turn to go stiff, because it was it was it was -

(_wrongohsowrong_)

- he acknowledged her.

It would have to do. Her fingers gripped his shirt, she pushed her lips against his.

Whatever she felt it wasn't what the books said, it was not this.

This was not hot, there was no fire works, no sparks, nothing like that. It was just sensations.

That was more than what she needed, his lips moved against hers once, twice and she moved back. She sighed, "I'm so, so, so close."

"Why do you want this Anzu?"

She took a step back from him.

"I just want... I – I..." she turned around and crossed her arms to her elbows. "I just wanted to want. I wanted you to want me and – is that so bad?"

"...No, but in a way yes. To give into those selfish wants. "

Anzu's head dipped. "Give me my dignity." she muttered.

"I'm human, pharaoh, and I want you, and I – I'd do it again, because I care for you and I dont know another way to show you. Maybe friendship is enough for you, but I dream about you, I hope for you and I pray for you, I'd die for you and yet, and yet... Aren't we just as selfish for each other? Please can't we be a little selfish, just this once, we aren't so different you and I. I'm... I'm in love with you and you are in love with your dream and I can't be your dream, but I'm just as real aren't I? Why aren't I enough?"

"Anzu" he took a step closer and she grabbed his shirt, pulling him close, she tripped on her feet taking the step backwards, they both hit the ground. His arms braced awkwardly near her head, legs caught. Anzu cringed, it was so cliché so she turned her head away.

--

"Anzu?"

"Yes Shizuka?"

"What's it like, to um, kiss?"

Anzu smiled. "Its to have a sensation so complete, that its better and so destroying. It destroys you... beautifully."

Shizuka blinked. "Beautifully destroyed?"

Anzu nodded, patting the seat beside her. Shizuka moved closer, Anzu leant over and braced a hand on her thigh (_letherfeelfeelfeel_).

"Its like _him_, he hurt to make things better." she murmured to the younger girl, who seemed affected by Anzu's closeness.

She turned her face away, up there was Kaiba and Yuugi dueling. Anzu sighed, her fingers tightening on Shizuka's leg just a little.

"Don't fall in love with men who have dreams Shizuka, they love their dreams and not you, and you'll get destroyed with them." She whispered into her hair above her hair, feeling the girl shiver against her. "It'll be beautiful, till it ends." Anzu pressed her lips to the side of the other girls lips. "Give ourself you dignity."

--

end

--

afterahardday


	3. Pax Romana

**title:** Pax Romana  
**pairing:** JouxHonda  
**summary:** Oh, the things we do for family and friends (and the people that are somewhere in the middle).  
**rating:** K  
**notes:** Written for Computerfreak101's Yu-Gi-Oh! Crack Pairing Competition.  
**standard disclaimer applies.**

* * *

---1 o'clock, I'll miss you more.---

---3 o'clock, and I'll have forgotten.---

…

_(--"Please come big brother!"_

"_Neh, it one of _Kaiba's _parties."_

"Please _big brother, I've always wanted to see inside a manor!"_

"_Urgh, fine! …but why does it have to be Kaiba's…?"_

"_Oh, and there is one more thing."_

"What_?"_

"_It's a costumed Christmas party!"--)_

…

-- but catch me at 2 o'clock and I'll give you a kiss. --

…

(_"Someone please kill me."_)

_..._

* * *

Oh, the things we do for family and friends (and the people that are somewhere in the middle).

* * *

Katsuya Jonouchi was a man of many talents. Duelling, insulting Kaiba's scrawny ass, looking after his little sister, standing up for his friends, hell he was even a pretty sweet street fighter, not to mention the battles he fought in his mind, with himself and anyone else that thought they'd throw a party in there.

Apparently, he also looked good in a dress.

Wait, correction,

--_Toga._

* * *

Jou tugged at his toga. "What is this meant to be?"

"A Toga!"

Jou blinked. "What? It's a freaking dress!"

Honda laughed. "Dare ya to wear it. Dare you or you're not a man." He held up his pinkie in the ritual they had had since they were twelve.

Jou swore. "You are a low man." He took Honda's pinkie with his own, they leant to the side and spat, then let go. "How precisely does wearing a dress make me more of a man?"

Honda shrugged. "I dunno, but you swore - deal with it."

Jou growled. "And what are you supposed to be?"

"A Pirate."

Jou snorted. "Weirdest looking Pirate I've ever seen."

Honda hit him across the back of the head. "Its all the costume shop had left."

"A green and yellow pirate suit and a red toga… Honda?" He slung his arm around his oldest friend's shoulders.

"Yeah?"

"You are _never _picking costumes for us again."

* * *

( _-- "Katsuya Jounuochi, so glad you could join us - and is that a dress?"_

"_Kiss my ass, Kaiba, _and it's a toga._"_

"_Whatever helps you sleep at night, dog." --_ )

…

( _-- "Honda-kun! You look interesting!"_

"_Thanks Shikuza!"_

"_I-its alright… it is really very, um… bright?" --_ )

* * *

Jou raised his head, he looked around, he saw Yuugi, laughing at something the person next to him (that Jou didnt know) had said. Standing beside him was Anzu, laughing as well at whatever had been said as well. He grinned, Anzu look kinda pretty tonight.

Soft and in a white dress, a set of wings on her back.

An Angel.

* * *

Honda, was in a corner.

Honda, was lonely.

Honda, was staring at Shizuka with so much hope in his eyes, it was physically painful.

She'd come in a matching outfit to Anzu, he'd noted, the white dress that sat just right on her, and those cute little wings.

An Angel.

* * *

-- 1 oclock, I'll miss you more. --

* * *

"How goes it?" Jou sat down against the wall next to Honda.

Honda sighed, "Its... depressing."

He watched Shizuka unknowingly enchant every man around her.

Jou nodded, eyeing Anzu, who was oblivious to Yuugi's staring... at her chest.

Yuugi _did_ have hormones after all.

"Guess Yuugi's brain is the same place its always has been - extra people inside his brain or not."

"Huh? What, up Anzu's skirt?"

"Yes... well, he wishes he was." Jou snorted.

"You do too, don't you?" Honda said smugly. Jou rolled his eye and went to get them beers.

* * *

---3 o'clock, and I'll have forgotten.---

* * *

"That was horrible!" Honda moaned in mortified embarrassment, his face in his hands.

"... it happened to you too?" Jou slurred - beer number six... or was it seven?

"You mean she - "

Jou nodded. "Yep." He passed Honda a drink. "Here ya go mate."

_..._

_( -- "Shizuka I..."_

_"Oh Honda, you are really sweet, but you see..."_

_Her warm breath was hitting his cheek._

_She murmured the last part into his ear._

_Honda sighed. _

_"WAIT - WHAT?!" -- )_

_..._

Honda took a giant gulp. Jou spat his out.

"She's going out with who?!"

"Not joking. Kaiba."

Jou groaned, dropping his head into his hands. "I thought Ma raised her with better taste... Tonight sucks."

Honda gave a side look, "What happened to you?"

"Well -- "

_..._

_( -- "Hey Anzu, you know you look really pretty tonight?"_

_"Really? Thank - you Jou!" She put her arms around his shoulders._

_"My pleasure." _

_He lent in --_

_she stopped him._

_"Sorry, I would, but... well, I'm not interested." -- )_

_..._

"Then I catch her ten minutes later in the corner with Ryou!"

"No way!"

"Mmmhmm," Jou mumbled through another mouthful.

"Urgh," Honda muttered. "I just wanted one kiss tonight. One decent make out session."

Jou hic-ed. "I know what you mean." he mumbled again, words slurring.

Honda glanced askance at him. "How many of those have you had?"

"Some would say too many, I say not enough."

"Good. Because I am going to suggest something in about two more drinks and I need you to be drunk to not actually remember it."

"Alright." Jou took another drink.

...

( -- _"Wanna make-out?"_

_"...Still not drunk enough."_ -- )

...

* * *

-- but catch me at 2 o'clock and I'll give you a kiss. --

&maybe they did.

* * *

end

--

afterahardday


End file.
